Why inclusion must go beyond the itch: Maggie Alphonsi speaks out

Over her storied career, Maggie earned 74 caps for England, helped secure a World Cup victory in 2014, and won seven consecutive Six Nations titles.

A Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year and inductee into the World Rugby Hall of Fame, she has since broken barriers in sports broadcasting and become one of the UK’s most in-demand Rugby speakers and Diversity & Inclusion speakers.

In this exclusive interview with The Champions Speakers Agency, Maggie shares her insights on leadership, resilience, and creating inclusive, high-performance teams—offering valuable lessons for both sport and business.

Q: You’ve achieved immense success both as a professional athlete and beyond the pitch. When you look back, which accomplishments resonate most deeply with you, and why?

Maggie Alphonsi: “So my proudest achievement on and off the pitch I would say has to be—there's two things I'm gonna say. One, winning the Rugby World Cup is incredibly special. So 2014, my England team won a World Cup house in France. Now, it’s a huge achievement because the England women’s team hadn’t done it for 20 years. So the last time was back in 1994, and the men had obviously done it in 2003. So that was significant.

“I'd say my real proudest achievement for me had to be, you know, changing the perception of women’s rugby. You know, and where I play, people would say that, you know, the women’s game is more physical and aggressive. And so being part of that change and getting people to sort of respect and acknowledge women’s rugby.

“And I’ll say those two things, plus also getting a degree and a Master’s has been significant as well to myself. But there’s been plenty of things, but I would probably say those are the key things that stand out to me.”

Q: As someone who’s helped elevate women’s rugby to new heights, what advice would you offer to women navigating traditionally male-dominated spaces—whether in sport or in business?

Maggie Alphonsi: “So the advice I would give to women in a male-dominated industry or environment would be to be authentic. So be yourself. One of the biggest challenges I had when I first came into, I would say, a male-dominated environment when working in broadcasting was that I almost tried to be like the men around me. I lost myself, if I’m honest, and that was really evident. I wasn’t being myself. I wasn’t enjoying my experiences working in that environment.

“So I’d encourage women to be their authentic self, back to themselves as well. Have confidence in themselves. For some reason, when we’re in that environment, we feel like we shouldn’t speak up or we feel like our voice shouldn’t be heard or we feel like it isn’t being heard. So I think it’s important to recognise it’s not necessarily the person who is the issue—it’s the environment that is probably more of a responsibility and is causing a problem.

“So I would say for those women in those environments, back themselves. Make sure their voice is heard. Be the authentic self. Don’t be afraid to interrupt or, you know, challenge. I think that’s incredibly important.

“So I would say those are the key bits of advice that I would give to them. And I’m not going to say it’s easy, because it isn’t. But I have found an environment I work in with regards to broadcast in particular, you know, I’m part of the team and my gender or my race is not—it’s not a conversation anymore. You know, it’s about what I know, and that’s the key thing now.”

Q: In your view, how far has sport—particularly rugby—come in terms of gender equality, and where does it still fall short?

Maggie Alphonsi: “Do I feel we’ve achieved equality in rugby and sport in general? I would say we are not there yet. We have progressed significantly.

“If we talk about rugby in particular, when I came into sport back in, I’d say, 1999, you know, women’s rugby wasn’t very popular. It wasn’t common for girls to take up the sport in school. So I guess back then it wasn’t normal, let’s just say, for women or girls to play the sport. And then now, we fast forward to 2023, and it is quite common for women and girls to play the sport.

“But there are still areas of inequality with regards to, you know, pay. Facilities are improving now. We’re starting to see more rugby clubs that are very much equipped to women and girls taking up the sport and they’re much more welcoming them. But we’ve still got those inequalities. It’s progressing and it is improving, and we see that across sport generally.

“You know, there was a stage when you probably would say women and girls wouldn’t play football. Now, wow, you know, it’s a dominant sport for women and girls. So I would say we are progressing. We’re moving forward. Women are getting paid to play, but there are still areas of improvement. We’re not where our ultimate aim would be.

“So we’ve got areas to improve, but there’s massive progression. And we’re now starting to see sponsors, you know, focus on sponsoring the women’s sides, where previously it would just be the men’s side.

“So now you see contracts be discussed that they want to sponsor both men’s and women’s teams. So we are progressing. We are moving forward—probably not where we want to be yet, but we’re definitely in the right direction.”

This exclusive interview with Maggie Alphonsi was conducted by Chris Tompkins of The Motivational Speakers Agency.

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